books
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Days Without End wins Sebastian Barry second Costa book of the year awardIrish writer becomes first novelist to win award twice, with story of a gay relationship set during founding of the US -
Andy McNab says joyless education is damaging poor children's literacyBravo Two Zero author, who didn’t learn to read until he was 16, says his experience working in schools shows that a box-ticking approach to tuition inhibits reading skills of the less privileged
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Malorie Blackman leads books world's protests against US travel banThe former children’s laureate has turned down all invitations from the US, while Comma Press says in 2018 it will translate only authors from banned nations -
Margo Jefferson, Julian Barnes, Decca AitkenheadThe first paperbacks of the new year offer rich pickings, from Barnes’s meditation on Shostakovitch to Jefferson’s memoir of growing up in the US’s black elite
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Two prose poems by Ghayath AlmadhounGrief and death are explored in these two poems by the Syrian-born poet Ghayath Almadhoun
news
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Virginia rejects bill to make schools warn parents of 'explicit' booksState’s board of education throws out controversial legislation that would have required warnings to be issued of ‘sexual content’ in texts such as Romeo and Juliet
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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To a Fair Lady, Playing With a Snake by Edmund WallerWritten by a distinctly slithery character, this playful courtship poem is nonetheless an entertaining – and satisfyingly allusive – pastoral
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books in 2017
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Books to watch in 2017Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ... the literary year ahead
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 52 – De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (1905)There is a thrilling majesty to Oscar Wilde’s tormented tour de force written as he prepared for release from Reading jail
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Book of the dayBook of the dayA Woman’s Work by Harriet Harman review – a life confronting sexismThe Labour MP’s book includes the subjects most political memoirs leave out, and ends with a feminist manifesto
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlexandra Kleeman: ‘Where I grew up, there is a daily sense of your smallness'You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine depicts a young woman’s dissociation from suburban life. Its author explains her focus on a very modern kind of loneliness
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about voyeursReading fiction is a variety of voyeurism already, but these stories brilliantly examine the most sinister varieties of looking
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They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of Black Lives Matter by Wesley LoweryThe American reporter’s account of the birth of the BLM movement is well researched but doesn’t quite bring the protesters to life
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Three vivid memoirs about the pull of illicit substancesThree vivid memoirs reveal the horrific pull – and possible benefits – of illicit substances
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The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les MisérablesDavid Bellos’s history of a bestseller written in exile puts Victor Hugo’s great novel centre stage once more
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Molly Keane: A Life by Sally Phipps – mother, writer, mentor…One of Ireland’s most enduring female authors of the 20th century is given a shrewd epitaph, by her daughter
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What Language Do I Dream In? by Elena Lappin – questions of identityThis thoughtful investigation of a family’s tangled polyglot past explores reinvention and the politics of language
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Dancing in Damascus by miriam cooke – Syrian culture respondsThe story of the Syrian people is usually one of refugees and victims, but this study details artistic resistance at a time of crisis
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Bad Dreams by Tessa Hadley – breathtaking delicacyA sleepless mother and daughter wander their house by night while a girl accepts a ride from a stranger in a collection of nuance and delicacy
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The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen – stories of anger, humour and hopeSet in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese communities of California, this accomplished collection from the Pulitzer-winning author sees characters face up to the ghosts of the past
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4321 by Paul Auster – a man of many partsThis 20th-century epic, Auster’s first novel in seven years, sees one hero lead four lives
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The Nix by Nathan Hill – a deeply engaging American epicThe writing is a delight in this sharply funny debut about coming of age in the US
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First Love by Gwendoline Riley – miniaturism for existentialistsAn exquisite closeup of a toxic marriage interrogates the ephemeral nature of everyday existence
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Marvel delivers an upbeat alternative to its apocalyptic dust-upsThere’s a kick-ass (yet optimistic) new hero in The Unstoppable Wasp, plus the tasteful compendium honouring the Pulse nightclub tragedy
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The best new picture books and novelsA trip to the Arctic, coping with love, memory loss and OCD and the best PE excuse note ever written
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The Pomegranate Tree by Vanessa Altin – a child's-eye view of war-torn SyriaThis fictional diary of a young Kurdish teenager is harrowing, but for every barbarity there is a moment of courage or kindness
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Babette Cole, anarchic creator of Princess Smartypants, dies at 66Flood of tributes to to author and illustrator of ‘exuberant, heartfelt and very funny’ books led by led by children’s laureate Chris Riddell
people
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From Churchill to Obama, the defining moments of a life aren't always the public onesFor a biographer, the moments of private struggle can be far more illuminating
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Raw experience is too overwhelming – I have to write it downThe author on insomnia, Zed Buddhism and why the office is a refuge
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Trump is like a random impulse generatorThe Pulitzer winner on America’s ‘mercurial’ new president, why truth is under siege by spurious fact, and his latest book – a fictional memoir
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Patricia Crampton 1925-2017 - from the Nuremberg trials to MiffyAward-winning translator who brought European literature alive for children
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: icecream from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a DayTo celebrate female friendship, Kate Young reimagines a sweet treat enjoyed by Miss Pettigrew and a pal during a night out in Winifred Watson’s famous novel
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Blue Willow Bookshop in HoustonCelebrating 20 years since owner Valerie took over, Blue Willow Bookshop is equally split between adults and children’s books, and staffed with knowledgable booksellers who can do anything - including fixing vacuum cleaners
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pictures, video & audio
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The biography of a bookWe chart the business of making books from manuscript to bookshop shelf and beyond
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Searching for alien life with Jim Al-KhaliliAs 21st-century telescopes transform the hunt for extraterrestrials from SF to hard science, physicist Jim Al-Khalili examines the prospects for finding life in space
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Tom Gauld on funny booksTom Gauld looks at reading to lift the spirits, inspired by writers on their favourite funny books
you may have missed
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What did the Victorians have to hide?What our 19th century forebears thought and felt is well-documented, but we know much less about how they really looked, warts and all
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How James Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabelle shook the literary worldWhen it was first published, Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabelle was derided as the musings of a shipwrecked mind. Ninety years on, this section of Finnegans Wake offers a late example of his great, radical vision
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The day my lawyer advised me to get a gun was the day reality came to an endDirk Kurbjuweit, author of the bestselling German novel Fear – based on his terrifying experience of being stalked – reflects on fact, fiction and the former hell of his everyday life
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Where I grew up, there is a daily sense of your smallnessYou Too Can Have a Body Like Mine depicts a young woman’s dissociation from suburban life. Its author explains her focus on a very modern kind of loneliness
Book of the day A Woman’s Work by Harriet Harman – a life confronting sexism